Hi all,

Due to the current work situation in my industry (things have gone to hell) I decided to look at a few safer prospects around the place. I've had one offer from Munich and am very tempted to take it.

I've always enjoyed visits to Munich but know nobody who lives there/lived there. I've been told by people there that the city does not have much going on, but compared to Zürich I get the feeling of more life there.
I know the place is expensive as far as apartments go, but otherwise everything appears as only a few percentage points above other german city prices.

As a question, has anybody done the move in that direction before or the reverse?

As a side note, I'm still relatively young (33) and would be headed with the girlfriend to munich if this all goes through. In the 4 years I've been here I've never fully managed to go for a few beers guilt free for the price of them, and as such I never really integrated into the bar scene. I've enjoyed my dancing here, but there is a bigger scene there than here.
As ever with people looking for advice, I'm nearly looking for people to say "go for it", or to hear anybodies horror stories about germanland. Also, I've always wanted to make a fantastically vague thread...

Munich is a very lively city. Expensive by German standards so a lot depends on how much you will be earning. Tax rates in Germany are much higher than in CH.

The competition on the rental market in munich is fierce, the prices can be as high as these in zurich.

Yes, the housing issue is the biggest problem and you would want to make sure you can afford city life. Even then, there simply might not be much available. I like Munich a lot, but don't underestimate how much bigger than Züri it is and how much farther from the cool districts you might end up.

Germany is a whole different story in terms of net vs gross income (tax and social security) so make sure you got your numbers right.

Also, if you are an outdoors person, keep in mind that on nice weekends a million people leave the city for the same small stretch of the Alps and traffic jams are guaranteed.

A very good friend of mine left Züri some years ago for Munich and he loved it. Had good friends there also which helped a lot, and he didn't have that here.

Last, Allianz Arena beats the living s*** out of Letzigrund.

Lastlast, the local beer is as shit as in CH. Except for the Hefeweizen.

€75k vs CHF100k here. I think it should work out as a pretty similar standard of living. Less money in the account at the end of the month, but also less going out on a monthly basis.

I've noticed! They seem to be from around the same price to about 10% less. Considering the lower wages and higher taxes, a higher proportion of income will be going towards rent.

It's a concern that the Saturday/Sunday skiing might be a more painful experience. But this is not the highest priority for me. I'd like to go see a few games, but football is not my cup of tea most of the time, now if Germany could magically become the 7th nation I'd go watch that, but they're bottom of the rugby rankings so no...

I quite like my Chopfab, so if it's as shit as that I think I'll manage. So far I'm liking Löwenbrau.

Taxes in Germany are probably (at least) 2x higher than in CH though.
If that's the gross salary you are listing there, that is.
75k might become 45-50k suddenly.

You can make it into the Tirol Alps within a couple of hours from München. You will get to learn where the traffic jams will be on the Autobahn, namely on the stretch up/down the hills before Rosenheim and at the point where you would head towards Kufstein.

As pointed out, you will be skiing with half of Munich. Timing when you leave is everything.

43k net after tax and social security. 3600 per month.

https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/

You are spot on, I've taken this into some consideration and it looks ok to me. Numbers in an account give a certain happy feeling but I'd be happy enough on less money whilst still having a continuous working history in my field. The fact that my girlfriend would be able to find much more suitable employment in Münich might be able to offset this as well.

Does your potential new job allow for work from home?


Housing will be the only factor that you can influence to increase your disposable income. The farther you move away from S-Bahn and U-Bahn lines (and the further away from Munich), the cheaper it gets.
The closer you move to the center of Munich, the more crazy it gets.
It's a housing bubble of epic proportions.



In Switzerland, you can usually put away much more money for retirement, if you don't spend it.


In Germany, you don't have that much money left after everything is paid for.


I hope it works out for you.

Good point, also as the German equivalent for AHV will give you peanuts for a pension and in my opinion the company pension funds are not as normal as they are here (Pillar 2). And keep in mind that that all will most likely be taxed when/if you retire in Germany

Yeah, pension. I mean the OP is 33 and has hit a bit of a dead end in Zurich. 75k is certainly not bad money in Germany and with two incomes Munich for a young couple sounds pretty good to me.

Thanks for the heads up on the retirement side, I'll admit to not thinking terribly much about it and should probably start considering it more seriously despite it being at least 30, if not nearer to 40 years away.
Work from home is a possibility, but not in the first year until I'm up to speed on the company, the company is on the outside of the city so I'll probably be looking for places near the end of the U-Bahn lines for city access but car/bike to work. GF can't(doesn't want to) drive so being near public transport is of some importance.

Yep, retirement is so far away at this point that beyond having some stocks I've not gone all out planning for it, time to get that sorted out. Retirement location wise is still completely unknown, not to mind where I might be in 10 years.

I've a few friends in the Tiroler alps (Kitzbuhel)who have often said I should go for a week to their place for some skiing. They might regret that offer soon enough if I'm much closer!

Or they will come to Munich a lot suddenly.

She has to find work first.


Unless she's got a job lined up, too.

No job lined up there, and a job finishing up in February here that is tied to her permit.
If I can't support the two of us on that money then I'm doing something very wrong!

I did 23 days there last season including the last weekend before lockdown. Where it was empty, perfect snow and sunny.

Please don't come

Yeah retirement in germany looks terrible, because the goverment dropped
the income as pensioner to around 41 % of your last net income.
So you have to actions well in advance.
In Germany there is no second pillar....... and no min and max pension.
Every group of workers (who earns a bit more) has its own pension fund.